“‘Why did you do all this for me?’ he asked. ‘I don’t deserve it. I’ve never done anything for you.’ ‘You have been my friend,’ replied Charlotte. 'That in itself is a tremendous thing.’” Charlotte’s Web finds me in the impenetrable darkness of these harrowing times. It is a book I’d like a friend to read to me on my deathbed – a story that ... [Read More…]
Media Review: “The Other Latif” by Latif Nasser
There reaches a certain point in an individual's life when a veil of indifference is tugged down over the eyes. Just the knowledge that children half a world away clench their grumbling stomachs like wet dough is no longer cause enough to care. Evil becomes a largely impersonal entity - a fate that befalls nameless men and women in nameless places. ... [Read More…]
Book Review: “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck
And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good -John Steinbeck, East of Eden East of Eden was the first novel I ever read that forced me to question practically everything I knew to be true. John Steinbeck is known for many extraordinary works, but East of Eden is something so spectacular that I struggle to understand how a fallible, ... [Read More…]
Book Review: “American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey Into The Business Of Punishment” by Shane Bauer
“It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.” ― Nelson Mandela As of 2013, there were an estimated 133,000 prisoners institutionalized in private prisons. There are times in life when you must question the ... [Read More…]
Media Review: “The Shallows: What The Internet is Doing to Our Brains” by Nick Carr and Jeff Orlowski’s “The Social Dilemma”
Let’s talk technology. We are living in what scientists have deemed the “information age,”: essentially an era built upon a consistent stream of intelligence. This ocean spills over into several large rivers we identify as social platforms, all of which utilize a marketing strategy of engineered seduction. Gone is the world where shared media can ... [Read More…]
Book Review: “Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved” by Kate Bowler
“If I were to invent a sin to describe what that was--for how I lived--I would not say it was simply that I didn’t stop to smell the roses. It was the sin of arrogance, of becoming impervious to life itself. I failed to love what was present and decided to love what was possible instead.” Kate Bowler’s Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other ... [Read More…]
Book review: The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
“As they say, history does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.” Rarely in modern literature do I find authors who risk their platforms for the sake of controversial writing. Margaret Atwood is one among the few, a wolf in women’s clothing. The Testaments, sister to The Handmaid’s Tale and Atwood’s latest work, is evidence of her willingness to ... [Read More…]